Graveyards
by Alkyonides Meres
Summary: "You can come closer Uchiha-san. You have some questions and I can finally take care of them."


**_Disclaimer. I no own. Ha!_**

**_No warnings, except mild language (it's Sasuke's fault) and depressing themes. Could be seen as tied to It's better this way._**

Whispers. Whispers everywhere.

_Look at the traitor walking by, his head held up high. He should know his place. He is not wanted._

Yeah. It's not like he wants to be here either. Fucking morons.

Some days he wishes he could make them come to him, to let them seek _revenge_ against him. Surely, no one would blame him if he defended himself, while cutting down the idiots that pollute this earth.

He seethes hate, more each passing day. It's becoming something alive, something he tastes at the back of his throat, making his head fill with horrible, murderous thoughts that spare no one. Not even the one he considers the closest to him. It was Naruto's fault he's trapped in here after the wars.

Who is the fucking traitor?

Lately though, he has found another person to hate. The fallen Uchiha rarely, if ever, interacted with her, given that Naruto had taken to avoiding her (something about a confession), Sakura seemed to feel uneasy around her and the rest of Konoha 12 he didn't really socialize with. However, during those few and brief moments he had to tolerate her existence, be it standard medical treatment for his Sharingan or because of inter clan relations, Uchiha Sasuke had drawn only one conclusion regarding Hyuuga Hinata. She was cancer to the name of the shinobi.

First of all, the girl seemed so timid and fragile, it was disgraceful for kunoichi around the world to be linked to their name. Someone so fragile should be married off quickly and do what she seemed to know best. Be motherly. It seemed as a miracle someone like her had survived the horrible aftermaths of the wars. Secondly, he absolutely loathed the fact that she also seemed to be a sheltered princess. Two bodyguards, two fucking jounin leveled bodyguards trailed her shadows and intervened whenever she even as much as flinched in discomfort. Seriously, what the actual fuck? Sasuke knew that as the reclaimed heiress of the Hyuuga, threats were bound to come her way. However, when Itachi, also heir to the Uchiha clan back then, was barely a boy of thirteen and had been out in the fields shaping character and experiences. No Uchiha was ever thought to trail after their prodigy of their heir. Sasuke knew that perhaps, it was a bit unfair to compare someone like his brother to anyone, but life was also unfair, seeing as mice like her lived on the cost of his brother's happiness and life, so he didn't actually give a damn.

So, in actuallity, the wretched Hyuuga heiress actually made his hate magnify intensely. He absolutely despised her, how weak and frail she seemed, how protected she was and how she didn't do anything about it. Mostly though he hated the fact that she had a chance to do all he wished he could, yet she seemed to hold herself back because she was so fucking uncofident. Unacceptable.

To give her credit though, the Hyuuga must have felt his lingering hatred, because she always managed to steer clear of him and stay out of his way, afraid to provoke him. For that Sasuke was grateful, because if she happened to try and engage him in even small talk during the few times they spend together, or heaven forbid if she was another fangirl, he would have done anything he could to break her. It shouldn't be that hard.

It was with these thoughts in mind that the black haired Uchiha wandered through the streets, aimlessly, feeling his ever watchful ANBU dogs trailing his every move, hoping for even a hint of miscontent. Unconciously his feet dragged him to his most sacred place, where he often went as a child to escape and also face reality.

His family's tombstones.

Many had thought that a great clan like the Uchiha's would have a private graveyard and the thought would not have been so out of context. However, his family had made themselves protectors of Konoha, so his ancestors had deemed it necessary to show the lowlives here that they should not feel threatened by them, since ultimately, even Uchiha bled and died amongst their comrades and those they fought to protect.

The irony.

To be honest though, you couldn't actually mistake an Uchiha tombstone with a common one, no matter what his ancestors might have wanted. The Uchiha part of the cemetary, back in their glorious days, could rival in beauty heaven's gardens. Even now, fallen into decay, their part stood withered and glorious, as if beckoning the visitors to see, to aknowledge the splendor of it's inhabitants and how no other clan in history would ever hope to surpass them. White lillies where covering every grave and the black haired man made a mental note to water them, so they would not wilt. Sasuke shivered in anticipation and made to move towards the sacred gardens he considered part of his home when soft sobs stopped him in his tracks.

Normally, he wouldn't care. Normally he wouldn't intrude into another's private moment of mourning, because, as much of a bastard as he was, he could appreciate better than most the unbearable sadness of losing someone dear and how you would never want anyone to see you in the state of missing them so terribly, tears would run down your face.

Normally though, he would never expect to see the Hyuuga girl hunched over a small tombstone, trembling hand softly caressing it while sobs took over her small form. Interested, he cloaked his presence and out of a sick kind of fascination moved closer to where she stood, to gaze at the tombstone she stood near.

It was a relatively well kept one, seemed to be only a year old from the looks of it and though it wasn't something he would expect of the Hyuuga name, it seemed well kept.

Activating his Sharingan to read the tombstone his breath caught.

The grave was one mothers used to bury their unborn, or stillborn children. Though not unnamed, it was small and almost as fragile as the twenty years old girl touching it.

Stunned the fallen Avenger made to move away when a voice, soft like velvet and firm as steel stopped him.

"You can come closer Uchiha-san. You have some questions and I can finally take care of them."

Sasuke stood still, perplexed at how she seemed to have sensed him when he was a master at disguishing his chacra signature and her emotional state didn't betray any alertness. "I am a tracker Uchiha-san, please do not underestimate me. Even someone like me could sense your presence so near." He almost smirked at her comment. However her shaking back betrayed her bravado, even if her voice had not wavered even once.

"I won't ask anything Hyuuga. It's not my business." was all he could think to say to her. Trully, even if he was a bit intrigued, he had a fairly good idea what this grave was and he didn't think he could handle another's pain when his was always so hard.

She turned to him then, pale opal eyes darkened and haunted and not even an ounce of innocence in them. Sasuke felt like he was seeing a kabuki actor without paint oi his face, as if he was watching an entire life fall apart right in front of his eyes. Then, in a split second, her normal docileness returned, shielding her eyes, making her the vulnerable weakling he knew and loathed and in that moment Sasuke understood.

Sasuke understood that different people delt with pain in different ways. Like Naruto who would smile in spite of everything, till his cheeks hurt, till his eyes stung from unshed tears. Like Sakura, who embraced the enormity of her emotions and let them pour away from her emerald eyes in cleansing tears and releasing screams. Like him, who hated the world and everything in it, because if he didn't he would come to hate himself and his own sortcomings and he locked away everything, to fester inside him till they drove him mad with anguish and madness.

Like Hinata who hid behind a veil of frailness and weakness, because the world had never been kind to her either and it seemed to have dealt her some horrifying blows she spoke of to noone. So the Hyuuga heiress hid behind her hunched shoulders and lowered eyes, so no one could see just how dead inside she really was and how trully apathetic she had become to everything she couldn't deal with.

What a fool he had been. No one comes unscathed out of so many mortifying experiences, however everyone covers it up differently. He watched her silently clear away her tears, realising he'd never seen her cry and look straight at him, unflichingly and without a hint of a blush.

It showed that the Hyuuga was the strongest amongst them. Her pain had forced her to grow, even if she chose to hide it most of the time.

"So you understand now, Uchiha-sama. I am glad. I would ask you not to repeat anything that went on here, but I happen to know that you were always the silent type. So thank you in advance for your consideration."

"Why do you want to be seen as weak Hyuuga?" The question escapes him without his consent and he almost berated himself, but he's too prideful to back away now.

Hinata smiles at him, a beautiful, sad kind of smile, unlike anythign he'd ever seen from the lips of a female and in a soothing way she answers her most inner desires, as though it's something to be laughed at.

"I was never coddoled Sasuke-san. My mother passed when I was young and she nothing was but a second wife to the head, a mistress who was impregnated first. The day she passed and when my little sister was born were hours apart, too close to be considered a coinsidence in our kind of world. My clan never accepted my weak, tainted eyes and my step mother never accepted the bastard as her daughter, even if the clan forced her to save face. I didn't grow up loved Sasuke-san. I had to fight for their acceptance and their love. And the day i had them I learned I didn't need them anymore" here her hand unconsiously touched her flat belly. "However, when you make plans, the world laughs at you. You should know this best." Her hand falls dejectedly and her shoulders drop.

"I wish to be coddled and protected for once you know. I feel I deserve it and if I have to face your condemning eyes, the price is too small. In this world, each of us has different goals and dreams and mine died alongside with that part of me lying over there. So for now, all I wish is to be like this. Do you understand?"

"That's the single most fucking stupid I've ever heard Hyuuga. You're seriously pathetic. You're telling me you will give up all you've fought for because of one misconduct?" Though his words were harsh, his tone held no actual bite and it seemed she knew it too. Hinata could recognize a plea when she saw one, however uncoscious. She graced him with that tender smile of her and Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat. "I don't need you to approve. But surely you understand, no?"

And he did. He didn't agree, but he could understand her and he couldn't blame her. Their world was one lunacy after the other and he couldn't honestly judge how she wanted to cope with her burdens. 'He turned to leave her then, intending to go back to his designated place.

"You know Sasuke-san" he stopped once more to hear her. "You know that after Pain's attack nothing has been left there, but debris and dust. The Uchiha's eden was destroyed beyond repair. Why do you keep returning there?"

At this the fallen Uchiha turned to the broken Heiress and black met white.

"For the same reason you return to an unnamed grave, Hyuuga. Some things, you never let go of, no matter what becomes of them."

She nodded in silence before adding with a mock smile

"Water the lilies will you? They seemed wilted last time I was there."

A half smirk was her answer.


End file.
